It's a common joke amongst business employees that most meetings could be replaced with an email. While very few people get excited about their workday consisting of nothing but meetings, sometimes they are very necessary. So if a meeting is needed, it's best to make that process as easy as possible.
For meeting participants, anything process- or support-wise that you can do to increase accessibility is appreciated. Here are three ways you can improve how your meetings work so that everyone can conveniently take part.
1. Make Scheduling More Convenient
Sometimes the hardest part of making a sale is getting a potential client to speak with you. The more effort they need to put forth in order to get on a call, the less likely they are to follow through. The goal should be to get away from a phone call system of scheduling and move toward a single-button option.
That's where a meeting scheduler can come in handy. By utilizing a scheduler program, clients can schedule their own meetings and automatically have the invitation show up on your calendar. To work properly, it does require that you are diligent about keeping your electronic calendar up to date.
Meeting schedulers aren't just convenient for clients. They can also be very useful when you're trying to find a meeting time that works for multiple team members. Some apps can pull in everyone's calendars and automatically show mutual open time slots. No longer is it necessary to correspond on long email chains asking about multiple times only to find out one person is unavailable.
Old fashioned paper calendars are somewhat satisfying to have, but the information is not accessible to everyone. For the sake of efficiency and visibility, digital calendars such as Outlook or Google Calendar are best. A great thing about using digital calendars for meeting scheduling is that any changes should automatically update for everyone. That way, participants shouldn't be unaware if a meeting is rescheduled or canceled altogether.
2. Get Comfortable With Video Meetings
Like them or not, video meetings are becoming standard and expected practice in the world of business. People can take part in meetings despite their location so long as they have internet access.
As convenient as video meetings already are, you can still take steps to increase efficiency and accessibility even more. First of all, make sure everyone at your company who regularly takes part in video meetings has a convenient video setup. That can include quality web cameras, lighting, or professional backdrops. A polished video setup does more than present a positive image to clients and coworkers. It can also go a long way toward increasing a person's confidence with video calls.
Another thing to consider for convenience purposes is software integration. Most well known online calendars will allow you to automatically create and attach video meeting links to event invitations. That saves a step on your end and will usually add the link to the recipient's online calendar once it is accepted.
3. Record For Future Reference
There are times when important meetings occur and points of discussion need to be referenced later. It might be because an individual had a scheduling conflict and was unable to attend. Alternatively, you might need to verify information that was presented or clarify a disagreement about what was said.
The old fashioned way to accomplish this, of course, is to assign a meeting attendee with the task of taking fastidious notes. There are multiple problems with that method. Not only does it rely on a human performing perfect notation, but it also fails to capture nuances in vocal inflection and tone. And frankly, recruiting a person to a meeting for the sole purpose of note taking just doesn't make sense when there are alternatives.
Especially in cases of virtual meetings, the simplest solution is to record the meeting in its entirety. Most video conferencing programs include a recording feature that alerts participants that a recording is taking place. There are also programs such as Fathom that will even record and take written dictation at the same time. That way, you can scan the text and jump to the video section that contains the information you're looking for.
Recording client meetings can also serve as useful training material. Keeping those recordings provides real world examples of situations client-facing individuals might find themselves in. Even seasoned professionals can rewatch their own client interactions to critique their performance and consider alternative methods for the future. That's not to say that recording client and coworker meetings is always appropriate, but there are certainly times when it's beneficial.
Get Up To Speed
Not that long ago, meetings were not exactly convenient things to organize or attend. While video conferencing was around prior to 2019, the practice was made much more common during the COVID 19 pandemic.
What was once a safety consideration has now become everyday routine for millions of people and businesses around the world. If you haven't put processes and technology in place to make meetings accessible and convenient, you're behind your competitors.
If potential clients find it inconvenient to schedule a meeting with you, you could lose sales. If employees are inconvenienced, it can negatively impact productivity and retention. The bottom line is that the more accessible your meetings are, the better.